Woe to the Scribes

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. And as always, it is a joy. It is an honor.

It is a privilege to join you on the God First program. Well, the state of North Carolina recently approved a new school curriculum that would teach elements of critical race theory to students, kindergarten through 12th grade. And if you're not familiar with critical race theory, in a nutshell, it teaches that whites are racist simply because of the color of their skin and that they are oppressors and that they oppress blacks here in the United States of America. Again, that is what critical race theory teaches. Not my belief. That's their belief. Well, state Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the first black person to hold the position, has been very outspoken in his opposition to these changes to North Carolina's education system.

So as a result, he has been attacked by the leftist media. So I want to title today's program, Woe to the Scribes. In the book of Matthew chapter 23 verse 13, our Lord said, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Jesus exclaimed, woe to you scribes, seven times in the book of Matthew chapter 23. Now, if our Lord says something one time, you better pay attention.

You better sit up. You better listen and adhere to what he is saying. He said it seven times. Seven is the number of God.

Seven is the number of perfection. So when he says something seven times, he's really trying to drive home a point. So he called the scribes hypocrites along with the Pharisees. So in light of that, I want to talk with you today about the way in which our Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and other Republican school board members were recently portrayed in the media. So let's begin by listen to a news conference that Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor, called on the day in which this attack by the media took place in clip one. That cartoon doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is the hypocrisy behind it. That's what bothers me, that you would portray a black man just because he's in the GOP as a Klansman, that you would portray an American Indian woman, a Native American woman, Olivia Oxendine, who is a Lumbee Indian and who has had to face the Klan face to face and their egregious actions and has had to fight against them.

You would portray her as something that vile. The hypocrisy is mind numbing, folks. And I'm here to tell you right now, this office is not going to stand by and let it go by. And when I'm not going to go along to get along, I'm going to call them out on every on every time. OK, so Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is addressing a cartoon on the local news outlet WRAL, which portrayed GOP members, that is Republicans, as Ku Klux Klan members.

And why? Simply because they are Republicans and they oppose a school curriculum that paints our country as being systemically racist. Now, remember I said earlier, he's a black man.

And you heard him say it in the news conference, the press conference. He is a black man. But yet he was portrayed in a caricature as a Ku Klux Klan member. And not only he, but a Native American woman, as you heard him mention, a Lumbee Indian who has had face to face confrontation with the Klan.

She also was portrayed as a Ku Klux Klan member. So all of the GOP members of the state school board are portrayed here in this cartoon on WRAL as an elephant dressed in a Klan suit. And as you can hear from the press conference, the lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, he's fired up. And he should be. He has every right to be. And when you when you hear this and you hear and how minorities, a black man, an Indian, are being portrayed as a Ku Klux Klan member and all the other Republican school board members, that should get you fired up as well.

I mean, it's like a friend of mine says that if that doesn't get you burning, then your wood is too wet because this is an injustice. This depiction, this cartoon was posted on the second day of Black History Month. So rather than celebrating the fact that, well, here, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the first black person to hold this position in our state's history.

The fact that he made this great accomplishment, the first black person to do so, rather than honoring him and celebrating him in Black History Month. Instead, he's be characterized as a Ku Klux Klan member. And as you say, the hypocrisy is mind numbing, is really, really mind numbing. But remember, as I said earlier, Jesus called the scribes hypocrites.

Keep that in mind. And if you see the video of the press conference, you will notice that there was no clergy standing with Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson at the press conference. There was just his wife. And then there was a white gentleman standing there who I believe is his attorney.

I'm not positive on that. They were the only two standing there. And if you notice, when you see press conferences held by the leftists in which there is a perceived racial injustice, you will see a large contingent of clergy standing there as a show of support. But there was no one there with him. And I'm in the process of reaching out to his office to ask if I can be notified, if I can be on the distribution of clergy, because I want to be there to show support as an ordained and licensed minister. And I know of another black pastor locally. He also has made the same statement that he is going to be there standing with our lieutenant governor the next time something like this happens. But they are portraying him as a Ku Klux Klan member. And again, he asked the question, where's the proof?

There is no proof. This is just this is this rhetoric, OK, because of an opposing view. So let's continue to listen to our lieutenant governor during the press conference. Because here it is. What I want to know from WRAL, is that who you are? Is that who you want to represent yourself to be in this state? And again, it's not a private individual.

It's not a private Facebook page. That is a newspaper sells itself to millions of people across this state that would put something that vile out. OK, so he asked the question, WRAL, is that who you are?

And I echo the same sentiments. Is that who you are? Is that what you want to be known for? This is a top rated news media outlet in the Triangle area of North Carolina, in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is not just Joe Blow's Facebook page where somebody just decided to go and post something on Facebook or some other social media outlet. This is a credible news outlet. And here they are depicting a black Republican lieutenant governor as a Ku Klux Klan member. And, you know, I grew up watching WRAL news. That was the go to news outlet for my family. And I'm very disappointed in what I'm seeing. It really, really is gut wrenching.

You know, it pulls on my heart that they would do something, that they would allow something like this. They would publish something like this. And I had a conversation with my mother not too long ago. And I said, you you cannot trust everything that is put out in the media because there are agendas out there now. Many media outlets are no longer trusted sources for facts. It used to be that they would just report the facts.

But now they have a spin that they're going to put on it to to increase their narrative, increase their agenda. And so we have to be wise and understand what is taking place. But again, our lieutenant governor is asking the question, is that who you are? So let's continue as he discusses the illustrator behind this cartoon. When I understand the person who drew this is an eighth grade social studies teacher.

That's true. And he's teaching these falsehoods because, by the way, wasn't anybody in the GOP that promoted the Ku Klux Klan and the ideals thereof? I can tell you who did that. He's promoting this in WRAL. What is he doing in his classroom? OK, so you hear the lieutenant governor again.

He's fired up and he should be. He's stating that this cartoon again depicting him and all the Republicans on the school board as Ku Klux Klan's members are. It was drawn by an eighth grade social studies teacher. And he's asking the question that I asked if he's willing to make this public for everyone to see.

What is he teaching in his classroom behind closed doors when there are nothing but students there? And if you're paying attention to what the lieutenant governor said, he made the statement that is not the GOP that were advocates for the Klan. If you study history, go and study it and look it up yourself. You will find that it is not the Republicans that were advocates for the Ku Klux Klan. And so we see the hypocrisy that's there. And, folks, our school system is in a movement of indoctrination.

Our school system is not just teaching our kids how to read and to spell to write. There's an indoctrination going on. And I want to make a statement now, but I want to ask for anyone that has minors listening.

I want to to have them step away for about 15 to 20 seconds because this is an adult message that I'm about to speak on. And if you're a minor listening, I want you to go by the honor system and do not listen to what I'm going to say within the next 15 to 20 seconds. There are reports out there that kindergartners are being taught masturbation in some schools.

That's right. You send your little child off to school thinking that they're going to go to learn how to read, write, play, socialize with other kids, learn math. But they're being taught something like this at kindergarten age. We're talking about five years old, six years old.

Folks, this is not good. And I also heard a story recently in which a brother, older brother of a seven year old boy, he looked at his young brother's schoolwork from the day and saw that he had a drawing in which he had drew a picture of Donald Trump. And he wrote on the caption, Trump must be stopped. So the other the older brother, he he raised that he brought it to the attention of others. And he said, why is my seven year old brother being taught politics in school?

That should not be happening. He's going to school to to learn how to read, to write, to get an education. But he's being indoctrinated politically. And this should be the case for regardless of which side you on politically, whether you're in favor of a Democrat, whether you're in favor of a Republican, whether you're in favor of a libertarian or whoever.

We should not want our kids to be taught political biases in school. And so there is an indoctrination that is going on. We need to be wise folks and understand what is taking place because this is not good. There is an indoctrination that is going on. The devil is out to steal, to kill and to destroy. And he's looking to do so through our children. And again, we need to be aware of what is taking place.

So we're going to take a short break, but please don't go away on the other side. We're going to come back and continue listening to Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson addressing this caricature of him as a Ku Klux Klan member. You are tuned into the God First program. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit God First dot org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel, just to name a few.

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Box 266, Knightdale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. So we are continuing to look today at, again, this depiction of our lieutenant governor, who is a black man in which he was portrayed as a Ku Klux Klan member. So let's continue listening in clip four. So these standards are divisive and this should give us pause to pump the brakes, slow down and revisit this issue and not pass these standards on tomorrow or on Thursday. OK, so so far, this is what the issue is at hand. There is a battle over systemic racism and divisiveness in this curriculum. It has a tone of systemic racism. It has a tone of painting our nation as a nation of racists that has always oppressed blacks.

And so. Our lieutenant governor, along with the other GOP members, is saying this is not good. This is not what we want. Now, those on the left are trying to accuse the GOP of wanting to hide our nation's past. But our lieutenant governor and others, and I agree with them totally, are not trying to hide our nation's past. They they recognize that there were injustices done in the past when it came to slavery and Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. But they instead want to teach, look at how far we've come, look at where we are today in spite of what was done in the past. Let's not dwell on the ills of slavery and the ills of racism. And let's not paint our nation today to be systemically racist because this curriculum is going to further divide, is going to plant negative seeds in the minds of children.

And we should want to unite one another. And so I agree totally with Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and the other school board members with the GOP who feel this way. And as we look at this school teacher and what he has drawn, I feel that it confirms the concerns that our lieutenant governor has in that there are things going on in the schools that are teaching kids things that are divisive.

Things that are going to do nothing but divide and plant negativity. Now, again, there's a movement in our nation that is painting things as blacks are oppressed. And let me say this, folks, for any of you who don't know, I am a black man here speaking also. LeBron James has been very vocal about oppression of blacks in the United States of America. He's he's stated that, well, blacks are not treated right and that blacks are afraid to go out in the public because they think they're going to get hunted down and killed by a police officer. Simply not true. I do not go out every day thinking that I'm going to be hunted down by a police officer because I obey the law.

So I don't have a concern about that. And I personally don't know of any other blacks who have that concern either. But this is what LeBron James has been stating.

And he's just constantly pushing the narrative that, well, blacks are oppressing this nation. But let me share with you folks that LeBron James makes thirty nine million two hundred nineteen thousand and five hundred and sixty five dollars this season to do what? To play.

That is what three year olds do for yours. They play. They just play all day without a care in the world. And don't get me wrong, I'm not anti sports. I play basketball in school. I watch sports today. But when it comes to society, sports does not have a redeeming value in life.

Life goes on just fine without sports. It is not like LeBron James has came up with a cure for disease or that he saved someone through through brain surgery. He's playing a game for entertainment. He makes thirty nine million plus to do so. But yet he calls this an oppressed nation. Now, keep in mind, the NBA season is eighty two games.

And if you go into the postseason, you could go up to maybe one hundred. But in light of the fact that when you look at most Americans work two hundred and sixty days a year, LeBron James is working less than that. And yet he's making thirty nine million plus dollars. I wonder what black slaves who came to this nation and worked in searing heat were beaten and tormented.

What they would say to LeBron James if they could speak to him today, because I feel very strongly that they would say, LeBron, look at how blessed you are. Look at how you are getting paid millions of dollars to not even work. You're not really working. You're just playing. You're doing something that's entertainment.

People enjoy it. That's why they pay. I mean, it's legitimate money. I'm not knocking him or any any other one that gets paid a lot of money for entertainment when they're doing it in a moral, legal way. But yet and still, how can this country be so bad when not only he but there are a lot of other blacks that also play sports and do other things of entertainment and they're millionaires. And so when I look at LeBron James, when I look at Colin Kaepernick, who will not stand for the national anthem because they say this nation is so oppressive, whites over blacks. And I ask myself the question, why is it that these guys cannot see how blessed they are, that they are millionaires through what is the setup in this nation?

There are white people who are the primary contributors to them being millionaires, but yet they are constantly complaining that this is a racist nation. And there are leaders out there. And I'm talking even with the religious leaders, pastors who were not being peacemakers today.

We should strive to be influencers of calm during this time of tension. You know, me as a father, I have two children, have a son and a daughter, and they're almost two years, just under two years apart. When they were younger, about the ages of three and four, when my daughter would eat potato chips, the crunching sound would drive my son up the wall. I mean, he would just flip out. Now, as a dad that love my children, whenever she goes to get potato chips, I would have one or two options to choose. I could either divert his attention away from it and take him somewhere in the house where he would not hear it and see it so that they would be calm and peace.

Or I could point it out and highlight it so that he could see it and flip out and there would be chaos. Now, as a loving dad, I'm going to want to be a peacemaker. I want to do whatever I can do to be a calming influence, not just for my sake, but for my children's sake, for my home's sake. And so when I look at what is happening today in our nation and I see pastors, I see influential people like LeBron James, who could be peacemakers, who could be influencer, influencers of calmness, that whether there truly is a racist act taking place or whether it is a perceived racist act, that they could speak words that could be peacemakers, but instead they stoke the flames of the fire. And that is Satan's M.O.

His M.O. is to divide and conquer. And there are so many out there that will fall into it, especially pastors.

I see churches that are given into this whole woke movement and God is not pleased with it. So let's listen to the remainder of the press conference from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. Well, we're busy investigating people for simply going to Washington, D.C. And yes, the vast majority of people who went to Washington, D.C. just went to have their voice heard. There was a small minority who did some very bad things and should be punished.

But the vast majority of people who went to Washington, D.C. simply went to have their grievances addressed. And now we're trying to hunt down those people and demonize those people simply for wanting to have their voices heard while a teacher in a North Carolina middle school would draw a drawing like that, depicting the first black lieutenant governor as a Ku Klux Klansman. It's something we cannot stand for, folks. It's something that I'm not going to stand for. Free speech. Yes, I'm all for it. But when your free speech proves you to be a hypocrite and I will say this publicly.

Proves you to be a hypocrite and a liar. We won't stand solid for it and we're going to stand up against it. It's happening now and I continue to make sure it's going to happen in the future as lieutenant governor.

Do you guys have any questions? All right. So again, the lieutenant governor was fired up and he has every right to be so because the entire GOP, as he said, was vilified because of the misdeeds of a small percentage. But then the mainstream media, a news outlet, publishes a cartoon depicting the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina as a Ku Klux Klan member. And he says the hypocrisy is just my number.

There's a double standard. He says they are hypocrites and liars. Because if you remember last year when the protests were going on that were led by the leftists, the BLM, in which you saw innocent businesses that had nothing at all to do with the action that they were protesting about, these innocent businesses were destroyed, were were torn down, burned down. And you saw so many on the left that would not condemn them. They would not say a word. Matter of fact, they promoted it. They celebrated it. They even created funds to to bail these people out of jail. They were out destroying innocent businesses. So there is a hypocrisy.

There is a double standard there. But remember, Jesus said, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Proverbs Chapter 11, verse nine reads, the hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge, the righteous will be delivered. So, Lieutenant Governor, I want you to be encouraged.

I know you don't need to hear this from me, but you will be delivered because you have the righteous knowledge of Jesus Christ. But remember, in Matthew 23, seven times our Lord said, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. The scribes in ancient Israel were learned men whose business was to study the law, to transcribe it and to write commentaries on it. They were also hired on occasions when the need for a written document arose or when an interpretation of a legal point was needed. But the scribes went beyond interpretation of scripture, however, and they added many manmade traditions to what God had said. They became professionals at spelling out the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit behind it. They knew the law and they taught it to others, but they themselves did not obey it.

Now, so you may ask the question, OK, so what's the correlation? Well, today we have media outlets that are playing the role of scribes. Yes, they are secular.

They're not religious, as the scribes were in the biblical days that Jesus were addressing. But the same principle applies because it is their job to give us factual information. It is their job to not be biased. It is their job to just report the facts.

We should be able to trust news outlets to report non-biased, nonpartisan news. But that time has passed. And our Lord said to the scribes then, woe to you scribes. He called them hypocrites. And the lieutenant governor today is calling them hypocrites. This is why so many people are afraid to speak out if they have a different opinion from the left, because they are worried about the way they're going to be portrayed.

They're worried about their reputation being tarnished, them being called a racist or them being character, have a caricature of them as a Ku Klux Klan member. But we should not be worried about the consequences if we speak out. We should instead be concerned about what will be the consequences if we do not speak out, because what is taught in public schools today will result in the policymakers of our future. So, Christian parents, will you stand up?

Will you speak up? Because today's emperors, they're seeking to silence individuals. They're seeking to silence organizations that do not comport or cave to their political or social point of view. And we've seen this in our world with dictatorial type of leaders, totalitarian type of leaders, in which if you have a varying opinion that is in opposition to what the government or the leaders have, then they will imprison you and in some cases they will take your life. And we see the same thing happening today with our nation. But it's coming from the media in which if you have an opposing view, they try to destroy your character.

But again, Proverbs 11 9 says you will be delivered by righteous knowledge. So I want to encourage again the Republican school board members, our lieutenant governor, for all of you out there that are saying we cannot stand for our schools teaching children things that are not true. We cannot stand for teaching divisive curriculum, things that are going to continue to cause divide in our nation. We need to be uniners. We need to heal. We need to build one accord because God has blessed this nation greatly. God has blessed us so much that we are turning more and more away from God. We need to repent. And that is why we are seeing the chaos, the division that is taking place.

Well, folks, we are all out of time. But I want to thank you for tuning in with me today. Please come back next week as we encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our Web site, God first dot org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.